


forget-me-not

by Tayani



Series: ShuAke Confidant Week [7]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Character Study, Day 7, M/M, Post-Game(s), ShuAke Confidant Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 09:04:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16513358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tayani/pseuds/Tayani
Summary: ShuAke Confidant Week Day 7 – conclusions / betrayal / justice?Akira comes back home after what happened in Tokyo, and tries to deal with the aftermath of the game's events.





	forget-me-not

The night has fallen by the time the van stopped in front of Akira’s parents’ house. The Phantom Thieves got out with him, even though he asked them not to; they squeezed him in one last, bone-crushing hug and shed their last tears before finally leaving him there, Morgana winding himself around Akira’s legs as they both looked apprehensively at the door before them.

“…what do you think? Will they be happy to see you?” Morgana asked delicately, and Akira let out a tiny sigh.

“Doubt it. Not if their reaction to my assault case was anything to go by.”

“But you’ve been cleared now, weren’t you? And, I mean, you did save the world few months ago. Even if they don’t know it was you, still…”

“You have obviously never met my parents.” Akira murmured grimly, before looking down at his friend. “Well, no point standing here waiting for a miracle. Might as well get it over with.”

Akira knocked on the door. It took a while for shuffling steps to come closer, and then the door opened; revealing a middle-aged, quite beautiful woman with Akira’s shining, silver eyes. She stared at her son quietly, before a little smile tugged on her lips. Akira found he could breathe again.

“…hi mum.” he murmured, stepping in as she moved aside to let him in. “I’m home…”

“Welcome home.” her voice was quiet, but not the apathetic, absent tone she used to use on him right after the assault case. Akira got at least somewhat hopeful. Perhaps he’ll be able to have a somewhat normal life here, after all. Perhaps his parents won’t be as miserable as he had feared.

“Well, get inside. I cleaned your room for you.”

 

* * *

 

“Well, this is _much_ better than Leblanc!” Morgana meowed happily, jumping up onto the actual, proper bed and walking in a circle, purring loudly. Akira couldn’t help but smile as he set his things down and pulled the rolled-up Phantom Thieves poster his room at Leblanc used to be decorated with, starting to work on taping it to the wall. This was bound to make it feel more like home, after all.

“Is it..?” he murmured, trying to get the large poster to stick to the wall. It kept peeling away on one corner as he worked on the other. “I liked Leblanc better, to be honest.”

“Well, your parents aren’t _too_ terrible. I mean, they didn’t look super happy to have you back, but it’s not like they’re still mad at you, are they? And they even let me stay.”

“Yeah, Boss wrote them saying you’re like. A therapy pet.” Akira grinned from his place by the wall, before sighing. After a moment, once the damn thing finally hung properly on the wall, Akira sat down on the bed beside Morgana, scratching him absent-mindedly behind his ears.

“…shit.” he cursed quietly, hiding his face in his hand. Morgana looked up, his ears curling lightly on his head as he stood up, bumping his head against Akira’s chin. The raven shook.

“…are you okay?” the cat murmured, and Akira replied with a little laugh – lacking every bit of humour.

“Of course I’m not. Shit, I wish they had screamed at me. Told me to get out. Or at least… I don’t know, _acknowledged_ that last year… happened, you know? Right now, they’re just… they just slipped back into normal as if it’s _easy_ , as if the world didn’t stop existing in December. Fuck, just…”

“Well… you know, they don’t know what really happened.” Morgana murmured, looking both alarmed and trying to be comforting. Akira was grateful for his attempt.

“It’s not just them.” the raven sighed, shaking his head. “I mean… today, I know everyone wanted to give me a goodbye party, but…”

“Yeah, you looked kinda out of it on the beach.” Morgana nodded, now jumping on his knees. Akira laughed that fake, humourless laugh again.

“Can you blame me? They acted like… like we’re just a group of friends. I tried to talk with Makoto about what happened in December, and she just…” Akira sighed softly, leaning back on his bed. “It’s like they’re all forgetting. Or treating it like some great adventure that was half-imaginary. They don’t feel angry at Shido anymore; half of them didn’t even watch his trial. And it’s like they just forgot Goro existed in the first place…”

Akira’s voice broke, and he covered his face in his arms; as if he wanted to shield his eyes from the light. He could feel Morgana jump onto his stomach and curl up there; could feel his friends’ eyes watching him.

There was a little _crack_ sound coming from the window, and Morgana jerked lightly on him; only to lay down again the moment later.

“…what was that?”

“Probably a bug hitting against the glass. Get used to it, we’re not in Tokyo anymore.” Akira sighed, rolling his eyes. Morgana pawed at his stomach lightly, and settled down.

“Anyway… I can understand what you mean. But… you can’t blame them for wanting to forget. They are all in the same situation as you are, and we all need to start living normal lives sooner or later. Forgetting what had happened is just… easier.”

“So I’m supposed to live my life normally, and pretend I’m a good family boy again?” Akira scoffed, clenching his fists. “As if I could just forget. As if I could just forget how it felt to see them all disappear… or how everyone expected me to save the world at one moment, only to push me into the shadows the next. It’s not that _easy_ , Morgana. Maybe to them… but not to me.”

“Do you have any other option, though?” Morgana asked gently. There was another _crack_ , and Morgana looked at the window in annoyance. “…we should turn the light off.”

“I don’t know… I want to have another option. I want to… shit, I don’t know. I don’t want things to go back to how they were, that’s for sure. Only, everyone else seem to want them to.” Akira moved his arms away, staring at the ceiling.

“…do you remember him, Morgana?”

For a long moment, there was silence; punctuated by a few tiny little _cracks_ on the window. Morgana sighed and stood up, walking up Akira’s chest to stare him down.

“Akira, you can’t keep beating yourself up over what happened to Akechi.”

“Oh yeah? Watch me.” Akira frowned, before looking away. “…at least you remember him. It feels like I’m the only one who does, at times.”

“That’s because he has been forgotten. When the world was remade… you guys are probably the only ones who wished him to remain in that world. I mean… it was right after the Phantom Thieves triumphed. Most of Akechi’s fans were ready to throw him away again.”

“…so it’s our fault, then.” Akira murmured quietly, looking away. He could hear Morgana sigh.

“Akira… you couldn’t help him. He was too far gone. And he did betray all of us, you know.”

“As if he had a choice.” Akira growled, pushing Morgana off of his chest and standing up, starting to pace around the room.

“He tried to kill you. He killed Haru’s dad, Futaba’s mom and all these other people. He didn’t need to do that. I don’t get why you’re so eager to forgive this guy, to be entirely honest. I mean, sure, he didn’t deserve what he got, but…”

“…you don’t get it, do you.” Akira sighed, looking at Morgana with a tired frown. “You weren’t there, in the Velvet Room. You don’t understand what Goro _was_.” he looked away, fists still clenched.

“Yaldabaoth _made_ him, Morgana. Wanted him to be a pawn in his little game against me. Gave him the power to turn people psychotic, shown him the Metaverse… and threw him away. He had no one to guide him, no one to help… no one, except Shido. And he had to bear with all that for two years before he met us. What did we matter to him then? A guy who sold his life for a plan wasn’t going to just throw it away because a bunch of people pretended to be his friends so they could use him.”

Akira stopped pacing before his bed once more, staring down at Morgana.

“…you know what’s scary?” he murmured, sitting down again. “That everyone is so eager to forget him… when he’s what we all could have become. If not for you guiding us… if we didn’t have each other… you think I wouldn’t have killed Kamoshida, after all the shit he pulled, if you didn’t show us we could steal his heart instead? You think Ann wouldn’t have helped me do it? You think Yusuke wouldn’t break and try to either kill himself to escape, or avenge his mother, if he had no other choice? Or that Makoto wouldn’t be tempted to stop Kamoshida _permanently_ …? We could all become killers. In the end, all that stopped us from it was… well. Having a choice. Goro didn’t have one. The moment he got one…”

Akira fell silent. Morgana looked up at him; his face impassive, his eyes wide.

“The moment he got one, he sacrificed himself for us.” the cat finished quietly; and then, after a moment…

“…sorry. You’re right, Akira. I mean, I don’t agree you’d end up killing people the moment you found out you were able to, but still… perhaps Akechi didn’t do that, either. Maybe it was a slow process. Maybe he tried to do things differently, until he finally believed he had no other choice. Whatever the truth was… he didn’t deserve to die. And he didn’t deserve to be forgotten.”

Another _crack_ resounded on the window, and this time, it was Akira who looked up at it in annoyance; only to stare in quiet shock as a tiny bit of gravel came flying and collided with the window again, with yet another _crack_. He stood up sharply and marched to the window; staring out of it, his eyes wide. And then, as if in trance, he opened the window and took something from the outside windowsill, holding in in his hand and staring down at it.

Few long, silent moments passed; and then, all of a sudden, Akira slammed the window closed, put the thing he’s been holding on the desk and marched to the door.

“I’m going for a walk. Alone.” he called to Morgana, who blinked, watching him disappear; and then looked at the desk. On the smooth, clear surface of it stood a solitary chess piece; the black king.

“…huh.” Morgana smiled lightly, pawing at the mattress underneath him before curling up on the bed.

“I thought it was a bit weird that _I_ came back and _he_ didn’t, after all…”

**Author's Note:**

> If you like my stories, you can find me on twitter [@mikan_writings](https://twitter.com/mikan_writings) and/or tumblr at [mikan_writings](https://mikan-writings.tumblr.com/)!


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